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Fruit & Orchards

Apple seed question

17 years ago

Do apples grow true to seed? I put seeds from a Lady apple in moist sphagnum in the fridge a few months ago. I saw that they had sprouted so I potted them up but I have no idea if they'll eventually grow into a Lady Apple or some other kind of apple tree. How many years does it take an apple from seed to reach fruiting size anyway?

Thanks,

Karyn

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Comment (1)

appleman178
17 years ago
Apples do not grow true to seed. Having said that, apples grown from seed are likely to carry along some (and often many) characteristics of the parents. Certain varieties in particular are known for passing on more similar characteristics in their seedlings. An example of this is the Snow Apple (Fameuse). This is the parent of the McIntosh and grandparent of countless varieties. The seedlings that you have in hand will probably have numerous traits of the Lady, but to get a true Lady you would need to graft a bud or scion from the parent tree onto another apple tree or rootstock. Remember also that a tree grown from seed will want to grow into a "standard size apple" which, depending on the variety, can be in excess of 30 feet. Most backyard gardeners would prefer a tree that is a bit more manageable, hence the use of size controlling rootstocks. With use of different rootstocks, you can control the ultimate size of the tree anywhere from around 5 feet to full sized standards. Most homeowners opt for trees grafted on semi-dwarf stocks. These limit the trees to 8 - 15 feet tall. If you have your heart set on planting a Lady are numerous places to buy them but the seedlings are always a roll of the genetic dice.
Mike
0
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Think tree: green leaves up, white roots down. There isn't much special you need to do, just the usual potting up as it grows and fertilizing every now and then. Apples need to go dormant in the winter so don't leave it in a room all the time. Scott
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Most apples do not come true to seed, but there are several notable exceptions. Two that I know of are the snow (fameuse) apple, and the Antonovka, a Russian table apple that is also used as a rootstock. McIntosh is thought to be an offspring of the snow fameuse apple, so most likely, if you plant a seedling of McIntosh, you will get something that will be very close to McIntosh. Most of the crosses that were made with McIntosh as one of the parents generally end up very similar to McIntosh, like Spartan, empire, McCoun etc... For most other apples, the above does not apply. You will generally not get anything resembling the parent, but the likelihood that you will get a tasty backyard quality apple is pretty good. You probably won't get special traits such as the cardboard taste that seems to be required for commercial apples, and it might not be esthetically pleasing to be suitable for store shelves, but it will very likely be quite tasty. Peaches are amazingly true to seed as well, so they are worth a try. On the other hand, plums are terrible, you won't get anything decent unless you have lots of room to grow multiple trees and throw out the unwanted ones. I have not tried to many of the other fruits.
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that may be so, cider apples are welcomed. i want more just to grow them to fruiting. i have made contact with Mr. Hauser and its just the matter of funds.... maybe next year if all goes well..... update on my plants is as follows as can be seen in the pic the seedlings have grown many feathered branches....i neglected them a bit and fell out of the routine care schedule. the heat and pest pressure from aphids brought about stress and this is the result ( my unprofessional opinion). they are in plastic pots outdoors in full sun, i now water them every other day and fertilize every Tuesday with a liquid fertilizer.planing on starting a compost tea treatment between fertilization. i am going to leave the feathered branches on as i don't plan on doing any pruning until after the first fruit set.
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